Hatfield's polar plunge' yields few brave takers

Benjamin Baron ,8, reacts as he hits the frigid water partcipating in the Sharky' Shivering Slides event outside at the Hatfield Aquatic Center on Saturday afternoon. January 5, 2013. Photo by Mark C Psoras\The Reporter

The first to hop on the outdoor slide, braving the cold water plunge at the bottom Saturday at Hatfield Aquatics Center was Stephanie Chidaine, 43.

The aquatics center, whose mascot is Sharkey the shark, opened its gates and pools Saturday for ‘Sharkey’s Shivering Slides,’ offering the opportunity for community members to enter the dormant pools.

At noon, the outside temperature was 36 degrees with the pool only a few degrees warmer at 41 degrees. Yet, the sun was bright, with clear skies overhead.

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“My husband has been calling me ‘crazy’ all morning,” Chidaine said. “I’m just going to go up there and enjoy it!”

Her son, gazing at the shallow baby pool, yelled, “Dad, the water is frozen!”

A small crowd, mostly of the aquatics center’s summer members, accumulated as Chidaine climbed the stairs to the top of the slides, choosing the open orange one.

“I started to go on my back about halfway down and quickly sat up because I didn’t want to go completely under,” Chidaine said after getting out of the pool, as her husband wrapped her robe around her. Screaming the whole way down, Chidaine entered the pool with her arms up as though it was just another day in the summer.

“It was awesome though — my official fresh start to 2013,” Chidaine said.

After, another adult and a few kids braved the cold - with seven total plunges.

“Halfway down my feet were numb,” Rachel Simmonds, 12, of Lansdale said. “I realized Jack from ‘Titanic’ was right when he said, ‘It’s like a thousand knives stabbing you.’” Simmonds swims for Hatfield Acquatics Center’s summer swim team and also for North Penn Acquatics Center.

“I’ve never been in water that cold,” Simmonds said.

Simmonds raced her best friend Amanda Shams, 11, down the slides.

Just in case anyone needed assistance, Hatfield Acquatics Center operations assistants Ethan Toomey, 18, and Ian Hammer, 22, donned diving suits designed for ice diving and stood in the pool at the bottom of the slides.

“We’re pretty warm, except for our hands,” Hammer said.

In order to host the day’s event, Hammer and Toomey worked since Dec. 19, prepping the pools.

“We tested the chemicals and made sure the pumps were working correctly,” Hammer said.

Members of the Hatfield’s Ambulance Corps were also on hand. prepped for everything they would do for Hypothermia and shock.

After having a resonable tunrout at the first winter plunge, the acquatics center hopes to host more in the future.